This article is an answer to "Competition Is Not Good" by Kroc and reading it wouldn't be comfortable without switching to and from the original article. I wrote it just because I do strongly disagree with Kroc and I believe I can prove that he is not as close to truth as it may seem from the first glance.

Patent rights are valid for 30 years. Still, that's much more then the idea's lifecycle in IT world.

I do really believe that all the ideas in IT (including the base ideas of innovative computer programs should be patented, but (1) the patent should be valid for, say, 1 - 3 years and (2) no copyright should be applied to software at all.